Monthly Archives: March 2016
How Ghostbusters II Broke My Heart
What follows is a story of pint-sized triumph quickly followed by abject failure. The tale of how an insincere disc jockey built a little boy up, only to callously knock him down. And an account of how that little boy's knowledge of Gorillas in the Mist was ultimately his undoing.
I was a big Ghostbusters fan back in the day, even though the film came out when I was six-years-old and that scene in the library gave me nightmares for months.
But in spite of those sleepless nights I bought the toys, the album and the VHS, watched the cartoon religiously, and even tried to build my own proton pack (sorry family vacuum cleaner).
So in 1989, when news of a sequel made its way over the Atlantic via Fangoria, Film Review and a trailer on heavy rotation in cinemas, I couldn’t have been more excited.
Miitomo Reaches 1 Million Users in Japan
Miitomo, the Nintendo iOS and Android social app, just hit one million users.
The statistic was announced over the official Miitomo Twitter account. It's also just the latest milestone for what's proving to be a very popular bit of software for Nintendo.
Miitomo launched exclusively in Japan last Friday at number two on the iOS App Store. Shortly afterwards it climbed past Puzzle and Dragons Radar to claim the top spot. Now, just three days after release in a single territory, Nintendo has another reason to celebrate.
Black Sails: Zach McGowan on Vane’s Big Decision
Warning: Full spoilers for the March 19th episode of Black Sails, “XXVII.” follow.
This week’s Black Sails – the penultimate episode of Season 4 -- was a huge one, as two characters we’d known since the beginning both died.
The death of Mr. Scott (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) wasn’t a surprise, as the character had been on his deathbed for several episodes. But fans may be shocked that Charles Vane (Zach McGowan) also didn’t make it out alive, as he was hung after his capture in the last episode – reflecting the way the otherwise much-different, real life Vane died.
I spoke to McGowan about saying goodbye to Vane, why he was excited by his final episodes, the way things ended with Eleanor (Hannah New) and more, including Vane making the big decision to signal Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) to not try and rescue him right before his execution.
Science Determines Time Vampires Need to Drink
Turns out it takes a lot longer for a vampire to drink your blood than Hollywood's best guesses.
How can we know? A group of University of Leicester did the math. They estimate it would take just under six and a half minutes for supernatural bloodsuckers to live up to their name.
Bear in mind this doesn't account for every drop of blood in the human body.
"Any more than 15% blood loss and the heart rate starts to change," the students' findings explain. So if noted video game star Dracula went for the throat that's how much he'd be able to reasonably get at without "slurping" his drink, so to speak.
The 100: Alycia Debnam-Carey on Fan Reaction Over Lexa
Warning: Full spoilers for recent events from The 100 follow.
The 100 has seen many characters die since it began, but the reaction to the recent loss of Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) has been incredibly notable, to say the least.
A fan favorite since her introduction, the Commander’s death has also become heavily involved in an ongoing discussion about the treatment of LGBTQ characters on TV – particularly lesbians, where examples of a couple getting a happy ending are few and far between. In this case, some fans also felt that the show's creators had used social media to falsely raise expectations that Lexa would survive.
In the wake of Lexa's death, many fans have expressed both their sadness and anger over the way the story was told, creating blogs, campaigns and even a very successful drive to raise money for the Trevor Project inspired by the show's turn of events.
Barrymore, Olyphant Starring in New Netflix Comedy Series
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant are teaming up to star in a new Netflix original comedy series called Santa Clarita Diet.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show -- which is set to premiere in 2017 -- centers around a married couple of realtors living in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Olyphant stars as Joe, while Barrymore plays his wife Sheila.
Barrymore in Blended
Dan Harmon to Produce Movie on Michael Jackson’s Chimp
Bubbles, a film about Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee of the same name, is being produced by Community creator and writer Dan Harmon.
According to Deadline, Isaac Adamson's script was acquired by Andrew Kortschak and End Cue, and will be made into a stop-motion animated film "in the spirit of Anomalisa," which was executive produced by Harmon and received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.
Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles
Firewatch Sells Half a Million Copies in First Month
Firewatch has sold around 500,000 copies since its release on February 9, publisher Panic Inc. announced.
While the budget for the adventure game was a “huge” investment for Panic, strong initial sales helped the publisher make its money back in about a day, the company said in a blog post.
What’s more, the game's Fotodome feature, which allows players to snap in-game photos and upload them to a server for physical printing, has seen 214,802 photos uploaded so far, and the publisher has sent out well over 1,000 sets.
Netflix Pays Big Bucks for Will Smith Cop Fantasy
After two weeks of bidding, Netflix has reportedly won the rights to Will Smith and Suicide Squad director David Ayer's fantasy cop thriller, Bright, for $90 million USD.
As Deadline reports, the film will cost $45 million to shoot, with an additional $45 million going towards talent salaries and buying out the actors' back-end fees. Netflix also paid $3 million for Chronicle scribe Max Landis' screenplay -- a massive amount for a spec script.
As the report states, the film may still see a limited theatrical launch -- even though Netflix's primary motivation behind the purchase is to serve its subscribers.
Is Agents of SHIELD Already Setting Up Marvel’s Most Wanted?
Full spoilers for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD through its most recent episode, "The Inside Man," continue below.
Is Marvel's Agents of SHIELD already setting up sending two of its main characters off to their own show? Judging by the way March 15th's episode, "The Inside Man," ended, it's easy to see how the ABC series is already separating Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) from the core group to establish how they'd spin off on their own adventure, which will eventually (and hopefully) become Marvel's Most Wanted.
Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD